Saturday, March 31, 2007

Back from Scouts Camp.

Troop camp 07 is ongoing as I type this entry. The reason why I came home is because I am a year 4 and is no longer required to go to troop camp as a scouts, instead I am a volunteer to help out wherever I could.

Though so, the 6 of us wh stayed overnight last night did not really help out much. We only helped in guiding those juniors in a confidence test. It was fun guiding them, and I have to admit that we were a bit sadistic to "play" them throughout the journey. But what really matters is everyone had fun.... ok at least we had fun. No hard feelings.

After that, we went to play street soccer at 11 pm, only to be chased out by the security guard. We were all super tired and shag, and we decided to go to the old scouts den to chill out. I realised how lousy our tv channels are, there is absolutely no nice shows on the tv on a friday night. We were reduced to watching some lousy "xanda" show. The show was only funny because we changed the subtitles of "fighting" into "f*cking".

I think we were really mad at that point of time, because we decided to go to 7-11 at 2 am to eat maggi mee. The cashier was an indian who attempted to speak "thank you" in chinese. It was really really comforting to see cashiers making such a nice effort.

Finally we decided to rest for the night/day . We thought this camp was not really that successful, on the account that the recruits actually had the mind and physical ability to do homework till 3 am, or wake up at 5 plus to have a game of chess. I was really surpirsed to see recruits playing chess seriously, its the first time I have seen scouts waking up early to play chess. ultimate.

I shant comment much on the new PLC's performance since we screwed up last year too. In the morning, we had a long footdrill session that zapped us all of our energy. i am still feeling tired though I slept for 5 hours. :|

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Zapcode, a new technology or another commercial gimmick?

For those who had been following the newspaper for this two months may have noticed this thing called "zapcode" on pages of the newspaper.

When I first saw it, I was excited over this particular new technology and wanted to try it out, only to be dampened by the prospect of getting caught by my teachers, so I brushed the idea aside. As I was websurfing that day, I found "techchick" showing us how to use ZAPCODE. Interested to find out more, I decided to go to zapcode's website to read up on it.

However, to my dismay, the more I understand the usage of "zapcode" the more i find it familiar. Isnt it very similar to the same commercial gimmick of "mymall.sg" some time ago? Where did mymall went? into oblivious I guess. Not to label the site as a scam, I label mymall.sg as a website that makes us of our curiosity mind. When we watched the commercials on TV, our curiosity would naturally lead us to the website and type in the keyword gleefully. However, to my greatest disappointment, more often than not, it will lead us to a page of e-flyer. Very disappointing indeed, I must say we are cheated of our feelings. It was claimed on the commercial that fabulous offers await us! I see non of the offers.

Very similar to mymall's campaign, zapcode promises special offers if we manage to zap. However, we must keep in mind of the small prints. It is stated that we have to pay for the data transfer via GPRS. If I am not wrong, it can add up to a hefty amont. Over the website, it was shown that "zapcode" could be all over singapore, there may even be merchandises made for zap code! I must say, currently it is restricted to the newspaper medium.

So how does it work? You have do download an application, after which, usign your phone camera, you are able to take a picture of a picture code and decipher it. Sounds pretty cool... The content we download are subjected to GPRS charges.

Why will I label it as a commercial gimmick. Firstly, it is set up by the singapore news press holdings and it allows people to buy their unique zap codes. The fee is cheaper than a newspaper ad, but it is not very cheap either. $ 100.00 for 7 days for a unique code which will be printed else where, ie not on on the mainstream newspaper. You will probably not get much exposure if you only buy the code. And if it is to be printed on the newspaper, the price is inflated up to 500 dollars. Not cheap at all.

Thus, if the buyers of such code had to pay such a high amount, what information will be passed down to us, the consumer? It will definitely be full of advertisements! This is to broadcast their own product, which is the very reason why they bought the code in the first place. I do not think SPH will make sure every advertiser to give great offers or freebies.

However, I believe this campaign may take off successfully at the start. The reason being it is mysterious. Mymall.sg was able to attract such hype even though we know what the advertisement is going to be about (the keyword is the company normally), thus the zapcode is just a picture with colours, it will certainly attract enough attention for people to try "zapping" so that they wont miss anything out.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Youth.sg ROUND 6

Oh gosh. now the competition gets heat up! Just before teh grand finals! I am so so so lucky that I won the 5th round and no need to take part in the dreaded 6 round. Haha just joking. BUt when they decided to extend the top 11 to top 20, it means the votes should have doubled, meaning your effort of rallying should double, if not triple! So good luck people, and I voted. I will not tell you who I voted but... I root for these few people who managed to get into top 20!

THE... erm chili thingie girl! hahahahahaha anyway, she is really very smart. Though she does not want to win... but it is indeed a great entry that every contestant should look up to!

Lynn! haahah previous round contestant! Great entry once again, I hope you managed to rally enough votes this time round!

Ahh... Rainyuki... been an old bird in this contest and finally made it through! I wish you ALL THE BEST! :)

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Bootlickers - love em or hate them?

Being in such a competitive society, I am pretty sure that there are bootlickers lurking just behind, beside, or even INFRONT OF YOU! These bootlickers draw jealousy from others, because our superior beings (boss, teachers etc) simply love to be bootlicked. We are always hoping that we will be able to expose their fake front and show the teachers they are all FAKE FAKE FAKE! But alas, the day of weeding every bootlicker out of our school is but a fantasy that can be dreamt by the minority. The reason being all of us will wish that we are the bootlickers, we all wish that we are part of the bandwagon that is favoured by the higher authorities. It just makes things much easier isnt it? When you did not do your homework, and you are in the good shoes of your teachers, what are the chances that they will send you out of the class?

We must acknowledge the fact that all teachers are humans too. Till the year when I finally graduate from my primary school, I had always seen my teachers as the "GOD" someone who is capable of not favouring anyone in the class, giving everyone a fair view every day it starts. However, it was only true to my eyes because my teacher favours me. Irony isnt it? I did not make a special effor at that point of time to "lick" my teachers ass. Ok that sounds a tad bit too crude, but I was just a student who was capable of producing wonderful results, so naturally teachers favour the students with good result.

Then, when I entered Secondary schools, my result plummeted, probably because I do not view result as the only thing in life. I took part in various organisation of the school. Surprisingly, in year 3, I am in the Executive Committee of the Consortium council, and the Chairman of our scouts group. At the same time, I am in the organising team for the 12th student leaders convention, which I must say is a position wished by many students of the school. My result are not bad, but not fantanstic either. I did not get raving reviews from the teachers as I seldom patronise the staff room. I believed that I managed to go so high up is due to the fact that i took the road less travelled. I often chose the road where I had lesser competition thus I will be able to shine in that field. It is an alternative to bootlicking.

Back to bootlicking. It is very rampant in my school, and I believe that it is too, in many other school. To what extent do students bootlick so that they will have a better impression in their "oh-so-mighty" teachers mind?

For an instance, one of our teacher told us that on the first day of school, a year 4 (my year) student went to her in the staff room and went...

"hi ms XX,"My teacher stared, wondering who he was."how are you? ms XX"My teachers stared and replied a yes.*awkward silence*"OH haha, nothing much, I am just getting to know my teachers on the first day of school"

Granted, that is one of the extreme examples in school. Perhaps due to my naive and innocent mind in year 1 and 2, i did not see those people as bootlickers, but as years goes by and I look back in the years I had been through, many students had tried hard to be in the teachers good books, to be a teacher pet. And some, are trying just too hard.

I am not here to advocate that we should all be a delinquent that is hated by the teachers, and I acknowledge the fact that high-achieving students tend to be likened by teachers, even though they may not want to have that attention.

However, it really piss me off when students make it their daily ritual to go to the staffroom, just so that the teachers can "see them" and have an impression of them.

And if you are not able to be in your teachers good shoes? There you go... another group of attention seeking students called the delinquents stepped in...

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Gah... Founders' Day

Sometimes, I just love the School calender, it is just been the first week of school and we are given a day off. Although many of us still had to go back to school, it is great to have a day of break in the middle of the week, it allows us to take a breather and reflect upon the past two days. I do not mean to sound inspirational or anything here, but I just felt proud to be in a school full of rich history, thats probably why, our school is taking founders day on a serious note, so serious that it can be levelled with National Day!

My blogging carnival had been going great, receieved 5 entries so far! Though one of this carnival's purpose is to expose less well-known sites, I am really glad to receive entries from popular blogs! In a sense, I hope that this carnival had brought out some interesting read in our local blogosphere about their own internet moniker.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Blogging Carnival 1 - the origin (The entries)

Yayy! Finally! I received some responses from the public. This is from paradoxical-lily! lalala here it goes!1. Paradoxical-lilium"crazyhamster asked about the origin of my internet moniker. I thought there is a need to formally introduce the origins of it.

From Dictionary.com:par·a·dox [par-uh-doks] –noun1. a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.2. a self-contradictory and false proposition.........." .... Read more!

I didn't want to make one whole new entry regarding my "ice-angel" name, so i shall devote 3 paragraph of it in this post.

"why "ice-angel"?We were in Secondary two at that time, and fairytales were getting popular around teenagers. Fiona called herself Princess, we called Huimin a Fairy, and so i called myself Angel. Soon, Fiona became Pink Princess, Huimin becomes Blue Fairy, and I became White Angel. I ......."Read More...

3. Mr Otaku! "A long long time ago, even before snow white existed, there lived a foolish and naiive mortal on migard.

He would speak everything that was on his mind, to a blunt and tactless extent that people would judge him instead of putting themselves into his shoes.He would be loyal to the people around him to an atrocious extent but little did he know about how the world went. Realist they call themselves, subjecting every darty and ratty movements to garner fame for their own advantage........." Read more...

4. Rainyuki "History goes a long way back, and my friends who were with me since my blogging days know that. Yuki was my given japanese name by a childhood friend.

Yuki means snow in japanese. I chose to preserve this name as it displays a versatility and uniqueness. It's the harsh winter snow("Fuyuyuki" was the name of my previous blog, before I met Wen) ...."Read more!...

"After reading CrazyHamster’s blog entry. I cracked my brains and thought about it but I couldnt really find the origin of this nick.

It was just a random nickname I typed to create my Maple Story character. It was nothing amusing at first until Edeson (whose MS character is Frozenpapa) and we got quite abit of attention after our characters marry. People msged us asking if we wanted any frozenkids. Some msged to compliment etcetc. We even bought the cash item which turns our characters’ skin colour to blue so that it will be more frozen-like. I think the nickname somehow suit us lah. Because both of us are dao what.."

The post before school reopens

The day that all students dread slowly creeps nearer and nearer. Every word that I wrote will reduce the time I have left to the SCHOOL REOPEINING! People. yes, like it or not, the school is reopening for the next ten week before we can enjoy a month long of break.

So people asked, this holiday, what had you achieved? This term, have you abide closely by your new-years resolution. What about .... NO? Year 2007 is a year better than what I had imagined it to be. My result picked up, and I have since won 2 competitions. I do not detest losing, but I embrace the feeling of winning. Granted, some of the things that I hoped to achieve had been secretly "postponed" to the next few months ahead of us.

Throughout this holiday, i had managed to settle and drawn the storyline of my new animation project. This will be a big scale solo project done by crazyhamster. I managed to draw the storyboard, and completed parts of my puppet. At the same time, I have won the recent round of youth.sg blogging competition thanks to my friends, online and offline.

So through this week, have you rested well? Are you ready for a brand new term ahead? Don't worry, BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Blogging Carnival 1 - the origin

Hey guys! Similar to what many overseas blog are doing, I am going to hold a blogging carnival! This is in lieu with youth.sg's blogging competition, and I hope this particular carnival would pull all the bloggers (including those that are not even in the top 11, of every round!) closer to one another and we will not feel that we are speaking to the AIR (echo: air... air... air...)

For the first round of blogging carnival, our theme will be ORIGIN of our online persona. I believe that we have a few prominent figure in our blogosphere. To name a few: Mr Otaku , Rainyuki , FrozenMAMA ...

I am sure many of our friends here would wish to here the story of their NAME. if there is no history, create one! make your entry as interesting as possible! Create an impact to your readers by having them to know remember your name! Thats the first step for you to have loyal readers. Branding branding branding.

To start the ball rolling I will talk about the origin of crazyhamster.

It wasn't me who came up with the name crazyhamster. Crazyhamster is a name thought of by my friend. And for the first time ever, i am releasing it to the public. There was a day, 3 years ago, when we walked past a pet shop. We just returned from a camp. Through the camp, we went through several torture session by our seniors. It made us really agitated and felt strongly against out seniors. On the bus, we were thinking and formulating ways to -in a way- kill our seniors. I agree we are sadistic at that point of time, but you probably cannot blame us because we just went through a totally torturous camp, where we got tortured rather badly by our seniors.

The ways we thought of killing the senior was rather dumb - we were imagining that he will get poisoned when he is going through ns etc. Then as we walked past the pet shop, we started to laugh, simultaneously. I was saying, "hey, if *censored*(my senior) was a rabbit, I will... turn him insideout through the MOUTH!" and we were laughing hysterically at that stupid idea, then, he said,"yea, if he was a hamster, i will pluck out its legs! and it will turn into a crazyhamster!"

And we laughed all the way home. Fatefully, that night, my senior sent me a gmail invite. Having heard about the fantastic space given by gmail ( at that point of time), I was really happy about it, so I left my old account : everlastingchampionvictorgan@hotmail.com, and created the new gmail account.

Guess what, I decided to adopt the name crazyhamster, and ever since then, my id had been crazyhamster. Crazyhamster is me!

To participate in this blogging carnival, do feel free to leave a link in my comments or send an email to crazyhamster@gmail.com.

There is no need to do a link back to my site for this round, however links will be greatly appreciated. Lets celebrate the emergence of new online personas, and inspire others with our online persona!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, take time to do an entry on your blog name, and I will link you from here! :)

Friday, March 16, 2007

And the winner is....

As I went online today, my contacts started to ask me: " Oh have you won have you?" and up to 5pm, all I can say was, the result was not out.

At 2.30 I went for a horrifying session with the dentist. He washed the nerve of my teeth, how scary! and He numbed a quarter of my face. like totally numbed. I sat on the chair, closing my eyes. Yes, i am afraid of needles, infection and that sort of. Dun start laughing.

i told my mom earlier on about this competition and she was like "oh u go pray to our ancestor and offer some josssticks, confirm get first" I was laughing at the statement, but I did it nonetheless.

Around 5+ I checked youth.sg's blog and guess what... I AM THE WINNER! HAHAHAHAHA!

Youth.sg aftermath

This whole week, my blog had been spammed with the competition voting. I am really really sorry about it, but for a while I seemed to lost my own sense. BUT ITS ALL OVER NOW! And you know what? I made many new friends through this round of competition and I enjoy the process entirely

Ok, just as like other blogs will do I shall thank my friends and some of my supporters.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

NE-mation 2006/7

A wonderful day or morning if you call it, spent at the NE-mation prize presentation ceremony at SAJC. It was really funny when we "stalked" an acjc girl in order to get to our destination. We were truly unaware of the direction to the school, thus after we alighted from the MRT, we decided to use some help from an unknown girl. You should have seen the expression of that girl when matthew went forwad to thank her, and she realised a crowd of around 8 people were following her.

Anyway, Hwa Chong did not win. It is such a pity! I think our senior really put in A LOT of effort in this particular competition. Of course, their competitors were working really hard too! If there would be such a competition next year, i am not really sure if I will take part, looking at the immense stress.

It is quite a major event you can say, with people from the press, media jostling around to get a shot of the minister. and the host is Ross, yes, Ross from girls out loud. BUt alas, its FIRST or nothing, unfortunately, we got nothing. Do take sometime off and view the clips from this site.

www.nemation.sg

They are all of very very high standard. Look out for the weblog of animation that I am going to set up soon! We will guide you along to make your VERY FIRST ANIMATION!

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Scouts Job Week 2007

For those living in Bungalows, Semi-detached, Terraces. You may noticed a surprising bunch of scouts appearing infront of your door this entire week. Ok mostly, for saturdays. No matter whether you are feeling agitated, fustrated or simply enjoy the look of the scouts when you reject them, they will still come. BECAUSE THIS WEEK IS JOB WEEK!

Being a venture scout myself, I decided to commit a day, no a morning, to doing jobweek, just for the heck of it. For some reason, I skipped jobweek since sec 2, so this is my second time doing jobweek. This led me into thinking of ideas to reject us, some being fictional, some are true!

Top 5 reason to reject scouts (not in order of merit)

1. We have efficient maids here, we do not need another one.2. Oh I am sorry but I really have nothing for you to do, i have just trimmed the grass, swept the floor, wipe the window, .... (oh by the way its only 9am)3. I really wanted to let you in, but I am afraid that my dog will attack you. (its a chihuahua)4. I am sorry but my MAM isnt in. ( And from the back we hear "MARIA! HURRY UP!", with a "yes mam!")5. Shake your head before we can open our mouth.

"We want to train our Scouts from a young age to realize that there is dignity in labour, that honest work is a definite virtue.Scouting provides fundamental and foundational training in the inculcation of these intangibles. In addition to other core values, dignity in labour and honest work, no doubt, will train the Scouts to be better leaders and citizens of tomorrow in our affluent society.Job Week helps the Scouts to understand the need to render service before they go out to earn money for their Units and for the Association.The concept of service before self; service to the community and the nation is an important aspect and an integral part of the Scout training.In our appeal to generous Singaporeans, the association reminded the public not to give the Scouts an outright donation. Scouts must perform a job in order to earn the funds they need.The funds raised will be used to finance a programme of multifarious activities that provide Training for Citizenship and Education for Life for the boys."

Ok, the money will go into individual scouts group. yes yes, service to the community!

SO go on give a job, pity those little scouts that will knock on ur door to offer a job. No, don't blow them away. :)

Friday, March 09, 2007

I am In AGAIN! I AM B1

To All Beloved readers! I am once again in the TOP 11 of youth.sg, vieing for the "WOW". No, not windows vista, but a 30 GIGABYTE IPOD! OMG. I wanted to get it all along! My number is B1, all you have to do right now is to key in your details and vote! Much simpler than the previous round!VOTE AWAY!

Thursday, March 08, 2007

New Blog maybe?

Taking a big one day off from my hectic schedule by focussing on my project work 2007. It will be a stopmotion animation based on a "dustbin story". I did quite a few sketches prior to the solidifiying of the story. It were sketches of my character designs. Finally, I met up with my mentor today and discussed the possibilities of each designs and ideas that I have in mind ( and my notebook.)

My Idea was finally formed (after like 3 months of working on a ccrap idea). I shan't reveal much here, because I am considering buying a domain and set up a blog for this particular project. I wish to share with the netizens as I learn, so it will be a "learning-with-me" type of process, instead of a "I-teach-u" process. It will be about the formalization of ideas, characters, and focus mainly on stopmotion.

What is stopmotion? Stopmotion is a 3d animation. In my opinion, it is the forefathers of the digital 3d animation. In a sense that chicken run was a huge success, it shows that stop motion do have its standing in the industry. Although recently, Aardman animation(the leading company of stopmotion) turned to digital 3D animation for their latest feature, Flushed away, I believe that they will still produce stopmotion films.

What will the blog meant for? It will be used as another outlet for teenagers to share their learning journey if they are truly interested in the arts of animation. Animating can be a hobby for many teenagers, a good one at that.

So don't forget to check back here for more updates about the possible site!

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

The Income - A blogvertise solution

After my mom gets hospitalised, I stopped tutoring. I have only earned 110 dollars. My Dad is on MC, while my sister is preparing to start her new school term and therefore quit her job as a sales promoter. Most probably my mom is going to stop babysitting judging by her current situation. She is recovering fast and is out of ICU today.

All along, crazyhamster.blogspot.com had been commercialised with advertisements from adsense. Take a look at my sidebar. However, recently, I had signed up for a new mean to allow me to earn some income from my blog, it is called blogsvertise It works differently from the adsense way. In adsense, i have rely on the readers to click on my advertisements, or sign up for new products for me to earn my dollars. however, in blogsvertise , assignments will have to be assigned to me and I will write a review on it. Of course, I will reject if the content is not appropriate for my audience, readers.

lets hope that this few means will help to make up for the income loss in the recent string of misfortunate events.

Monday, March 05, 2007

100th Post. Dedicated to Youth.sg

Thats just like calling out "Hey crazyhamster! its your time to get out of your hibernation after round two!"

Whats more, they are dangling a product that I can never resist, and the same time, never afford. We must not confuse what we need and what we want. An ipod is certainly what most of the teenagers wants, but at the same time, it is an item that NONE of the teenager's need. So thats precisely why my mother refuse to get me one of the DAP for my last birthday. It was indeed disappointing, but nonetheless, perhaps I could attempt to win one. A method that will not touch a cent that my mom earns! That is what you call win-win!

I must say it is hard to go for this competition the third time, as it will be the third time you are baring your souls to the world wide web. As human nature goes, they demand more and fresher things as the experience adds on. Writing a THIRD entry for this competition is indeed pressing me down a little, but anyhow, I thought of the method I could employ writing this particular entry.

The first entry was crap? It was mainly just an entry for the competition, and thats that. The second entry was more of showing the "sensible" side of me, a view even my friends did not know of. How exactly could I make this post a novel entry that my fellow bloggers will feel the urge to vote for me?

I shall reveal some of my darkest secrets here. No, I am not a gay. I am a creative youth in Singapore!

Across my 4 years of Secondary school, I am in the Arts Elective programme of Hwa Chong Institution, from then on I am sucked into the realms of media art (this particular week's theme!) I had made several animations, however I must say none of them are really presentable. Nonetheless, I shall present to you an animation that I did in the past month, using only 1 night, with another partner. It was a project meant for ACS(i) Life science symposium, It was the top Entry. In another words, this animation earned us 5 trophies, and 600 kinokuniya Vouchers.

Interesting? but certainly not the best that the AEP could produce.

At the same time, i was also in charge of making some nice photo montage meant for mass viewing. I shall show you one of which that is closest to my heart, and perhaps to the other 400 other "pro-edians" in my school. It is the proed song.

I AM IN TOP 11 AGAIN!

The previous round, I did not obey the "suggestion" of putting up enough pictures. But this time round, I felt strongly only when I see the "suggestions". So wouldnt it be an irony if I am going to submit an all-text article again?

I believe strongly in making my readers' happy, thus I advocate this blogging competition to everyone who feels that you can bring this happiness of blogging to more youths in Singapore!

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Reason for not posting

Hey people, I am really sorry for not posting for the past 6 DAYS! In case you didn't know, I am not one who apologises when i do not blog when i don't have inspiration. Rather, i apologise when there is valid reason for me not posting at all. And the reason is my mom. I think this year is the year which my family would grow (not in numbers), it is a challenge to all four of us. As mentioned before, my dad's leg was injured , and now, My mom is down with severe pneumonia. The cause of the pneumonia is still unknown till now. In another words, she is still in the intensive care unit and not out of danger yet.

WAIT! before you guys address me as someone who cares more about blogging than his mom, I shall explain in a slightly more detailed account. My mom was hospitalised last sunday, the night that I blogged about the ten post. She was in a really bad shape, and she couldn't really breath. So around 2 am, we called for ambulance and she was brought to NUH. I didnt go because there's school tomorrow.

For the next 5 days, she was warded in the ICU, and remained in critical situation. She was surviving on the respirator through a tube into her lungs. It was really heartwrenching to see her in that state. But it cant be help. I was pestering the doctors to give me an upadte of her situation everytime I visit her. Every afternoon I would rush down to NUH and visit her. I flunked my math test, scoring a 64 percent when others are scoring above 80s. This was the moment I understood, grades aren't everything. I was controlling my tears through out the test, its a no wonder that I flunked it.

However, as the days goes by, I learnt to control my emotion. I know that without my mom's help, my life would be turned upside down. Indeed it was, everyday, without my mom's morning call, I was often rushing to be in time. Without her sandwich, i was often starving in school. Without her perfect ironing, my uniform was often not pressed neatly (because I am noob).

It is this time i realised the importance of kinship and friendship. My mom is getting better now, my friends and teacher had visited her. I really appreciate the concern of my friends and teachers, especially yingmin and olivia. They are really great friends! ;)

No matter how tough the rest of the journey is going to be, I will make it through. Because, i am victor gan